ABSTRACT Sharon Potter, M. Ed. discusses medical issues related to sexuality and people with intellectual disabilities and autism. There is a fine line between supporting people to live full, rich lives and protecting those who may be vulnerable. Education regarding sex, relationships and consent are sorely lacking, both for people we support and for families, support staff and medical professionals. The medical community is treating people who may have cognitive, language and physical limitations, and possibly a history of trauma. Sex and sexuality are not easy topics to discuss, but if we don’t, who will? We need to get out of our comfort zones and talk about the hard stuff, including sex and intimacy, anatomy, LGBTQ, consent, privacy, trust, peer pressure and the law. We are all in this together.
BIO
Sharon Mahar Potter, M.Ed. is a Sexuality Consultant specializing in ID/DD/Autism. Ms. Potter has more than thirty years’ experience working with children and adults who have IDD and Autism and twenty-five years working in the LGBT community. She has served on the Boards of Directors for LGBT Community Center of Central PA, YWCA, Planned Parenthood, League of Women Voters and the National Organization of Women. Ms. Potter and her late husband Thomas, a historic preservation architect, blended their biracial family of six children, all under nine, in 1975. They enjoyed sailing on their sloop, Northern Spy, on the Chesapeake. Ms. Potter has eleven grandchildren and two great grandchildren and is writing a Memoir, My Life in Pieces. She lives in a cottage on a lake in the mountains of Pennsylvania with her cat, Hazel.
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